File:A history of birds (1910) (14746589341).jpg

Identifier: historyofbirds00pycr (find matches)
Title: A history of birds
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Pycraft, W. P. (William Plane), 1868-1942
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, Methuen and Co
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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le matter on land, varied with succulent water-plantsobtained when on the water. These birds, as we have re-marked, are probably the ancestors, or near allies of theancestors, of the Goose tribe, and, it may be remembered,though aquatic in habits, have no webs to the toes. The nextstage in the evolution of the more typical Anserine bird weget in the Black and White Goose, or Semi-palmated Goose(Anseranas), wherein the toes are half-webbed, and the beakhas assumed a Goose-like form, having the edges of the jawsprovided with horny lamellae; while the tongue has becomethick and fleshy and fringed with horny processes. The de-velopment of this peculiar form of tongue, and of the hornyprocesses along the jaws, enable the bird to avail itself of therich stores of food in the shape of insects and other organismswhich teem in the water. These are captured by taking largequantities of water into the mouth and expelling it by means ofthe fleshy tongue, the lamellae of the jaws acting as a rough
Text Appearing After Image:
III. 48.—Ear Apertures oe the Owls ^-l^.^l^.

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